Morning Devotion

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.
¹ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁵ God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
⁶ The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
⁷ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
⁸ Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.
¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
¹¹ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah (ESV)

To the choirmaster. Of David, for the memorial offering.
¹ Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me!
² Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt!
³ Let them turn back because of their shame who say, “Aha, Aha!”
⁴ May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
⁵ But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay! (ESV)

¹ Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
² Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.
³ Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
⁴ He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful.
⁵ He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.
⁶ He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
⁷ The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy;
⁸ they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
⁹ He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

¹ Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!
² His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
³ Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
⁴ Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
⁵ It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.
⁶ For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.
⁷ He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.
⁸ His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
⁹ He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor.
¹⁰ The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!

¹ Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD!
² Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore!
³ From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised!
⁴ The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!
⁵ Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
⁶ who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
⁷ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
⁸ to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
⁹ He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD! (ESV)

⁴ Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”
⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
⁸ The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
⁹ When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.
¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
¹³ Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. (ESV)

¹ Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.
² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.
⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.
⁶ He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed:
⁷ Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
⁹ Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”
¹¹ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
¹² Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem.
¹³ And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”
¹⁴ So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
¹⁵ And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?”
¹⁶ “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.”
¹⁷ And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
¹⁸ They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him.
¹⁹ They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer.
²⁰ Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.”
²¹ But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”
²² And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore.
²⁴ And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
²⁵ Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
²⁷ Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him.
²⁸ Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes
³⁰ and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?”
³¹ Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
³² And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.”
³³ And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
³⁴ Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.
³⁵ All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
³⁶ Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. (ESV)

¹ And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.
² And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”
⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”
⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,
⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.
¹¹ And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,
¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (ESV)

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.
³ “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
⁴ “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.
⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’s Passover.
⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.
⁸ But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
⁹ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest,
¹¹ and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
¹² And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD.
¹³ And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the LORD with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.
¹⁴ And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
¹⁵ “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.
¹⁶ You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD.
¹⁷ You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD.
¹⁸ And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
¹⁹ And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.
²⁰ And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
²¹ And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
²² “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.”
²³ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
²⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
²⁵ You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the LORD.”
²⁶ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
²⁷ “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the LORD.
²⁸ And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.
²⁹ For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.
³⁰ And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people.
³¹ You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
³² It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
³³ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
³⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the LORD.
³⁵ On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.
³⁶ For seven days you shall present food offerings to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.
³⁷ “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the LORD food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day,
³⁸ besides the LORD’s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the LORD.
³⁹ “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.
⁴⁰ And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
⁴¹ You shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
⁴² You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
⁴³ that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”
⁴⁴ Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the LORD.

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly.
³ Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the LORD regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
⁴ He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the LORD regularly.
⁵ “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf.
⁶ And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the LORD.
⁷ And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the LORD.
⁸ Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the LORD regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.
⁹ And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the LORD’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”
¹⁰ Now an Israelite woman’s son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought in the camp,
¹¹ and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.
¹² And they put him in custody, till the will of the LORD should be clear to them.
¹³ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
¹⁴ “Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
¹⁵ And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.
¹⁶ Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
¹⁷ “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.
¹⁸ Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life.
¹⁹ If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him,
²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.
²¹ Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death.
²² You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the LORD your God.”
²³ So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses. (ESV)

³³ And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
³⁵ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.”
³⁶ And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”
³⁷ And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
³⁸ And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
⁴⁰ There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.
⁴¹ When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
⁴² And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.
⁴⁵ And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.
⁴⁶ And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
⁴⁷ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. (ESV)

A Maskil of David.
¹ Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
⁶ Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
⁷ You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
⁹ Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
¹⁰ Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.
¹¹ Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (ESV)

¹ Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
² Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
³ What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
⁴ By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)
⁶ By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
⁷ But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?
⁸ And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
⁹ What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
¹⁰ as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
¹³ “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
³⁰ since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

¹ What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?
² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
⁴ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
⁵ And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
⁶ just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
⁸ blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
⁹ Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
¹⁰ How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
¹² and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
¹⁷ as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
¹⁸ In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
²⁰ No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
²³ But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,
²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
¹⁷ For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
¹⁸ Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
¹⁹ For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹ What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin.
⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)